Method for production of water purifying substances

Abstract: Water purifying substances produced by mixing raw material soil containing allophane expressed by: nSiO₂.Al₂O₃.mH₂O where, n is a number within the range of 1.3 to 2, and m is a number within the range of 2.5 to 3 at the maximum larger than 0, with water, and sintering a mixture thus obtained at 200°C to 700°C, consequently to form porous sintered particles having a function of absorbing and fixing phosphoric acid. By scattering the water purifying substances around a lake, marsh or other watering places, nutritious phosphoric acid in sludge accumulated in the lake and so on can be effectively captured. The purifying effect of the water purifying substance can be improved by adding polyaluminum chloride and/or ferrous sulfate to the raw material soil.

Description: This invention relates to water purifying substances having high ability to fix phosphoric acid and a method for producing the same, and more particularly to a water purifying substance capable of decreasing phosphoric acid contained in sludge accumulated on the bottom of a sewer, lake or the like. Recently, the nitrogen and phosphorous contents in wastes or scraps are increasing, thus involving an environmental problem from the viewpoint of the environmental protection such that wastes containing such nutritious matters for the land are dumped into river, lake, marsh or other watering places. In a sense, the environment system is nourished by various wastes and scraps fortified with plenty or nutritious salts such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which flow into the sea, river, lake or marsh via the drainage basins. Thus, the wastes of high nutritive value primarily for plant plankton are accumulated on the bottom of the lake or others. With increasing the nourishment of the environment system, harmful plant plankton such as water-bloom and red tide is bred on a massive scale, thus dyeing the water of the lake or other watering places green or brown. The environmental pollution often causes damage to the marine products industry, fish-raising industry and so forth, and anxiety about safety of living water. There are thought two causes of supplying phosphoric acid serving as a nutrient for microorganisms to the environmental system such as a lake and so on, as follows: (1) Waste water fortified with phosphoric acid flows into the lake or the like. (2) Phosphoric acid held in sludge accumulate on the lake bottom eludes. The route of supplying the phosphoric acid to the lake or marsh has been shut off by the following methods. (A) To solve the aforenoted problem (a), there may be adopted a method of absorbing the pollutant in question by use of adhering biological membrane as used in a common liquid-waste treatment, an absorbent such as activated charcoal capable of absorbing even small quantities of organic and stinking substances, or a modern reaction device of an ozone-oxidation type, thus cleaning up city water to a high degree. (B) A method for solving the aforenoted problem (b) has been practiced by scattering sand all over the lake or other watering places to confine the sludge. However, it has been so far difficult to completely cut off the route of phosphoric acid flowing into the lake or marsh and prevent the wastes from being fortified by the reasons mentioned below. To be more specific, the former method (A) for solving the first problem (a) by use of various absorbing means is practiced by conducting into public sewerage all the pollution sources including domestic waste water from domestic drainage and industrial liquid waste flowing out from even small factories, purifying the waste water by completely removing the phosphoric acid from the waste water, and then discharging the purified waste water into the lake, river or other watering places. This method is disadvantageous in that it entails too much labor, expense and time to be practicable. Although the aforesaid impracticable method may possibly be beneficial to become widespread domestically and industrially at a low cost some day in the future, the technique and facilities for purifying waste water will be attended with great planning and managing difficulties. According to the latter method (B) for improving the environment, the polluted sludge in the lake or other watering places may be completely covered up with sand, but this is by no means a fundamental solution of the problem because the polluted sludge does not cease to exist. Incidentally, the self-purification effect of rivers, land, lakes and marshes has been known since early times. For instance, the land has the organically decomposing power due to soil microbes and contains clay particles essentially possessing the prominent ability to absorb phosphorous. Therefore, it is desirable to make good use of the purifying abilities of nature without exclusively depending on a waste water treatment system to prevent the sludge or other pollutants from being fortified with phosphorous elements in wastes. JP-A-30 068 445 discloses a phosphorous remover produced by sintering a material composed essentially of allophane. JP-A-4 110 035 discloses a treating agent comprising a porous sintered body of containing active carbon and at least one metal oxide of calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium, potassium, aluminum or silicon. JP-A-63 021 113 discloses a porous mould comprising a sintered body of a mineral containing zeolite and allophane. JP-A-31 01 834 discloses an absorbent comprising a sintered organic substance containing incineration ash of sludge. The present invention was made to remedy the shortcoming of the conventional waste purifying system and has an object to provide a water purifying substance having excellent ability to fix phosphoric acid contained in nutritious sludge of a lake, marsh and other watering places so as to improve the quality of water, and further provide a method for producing that water purifying substance. The inventors have made a thorough study of effectively utilizing the self-purification effect of soil and found that sintered particles produced by sintering soil containing allophanes at a specific temperature brings about an unexpected function of not only exhibiting excellent ability of fixing phosphoric acid, but also decreasing the thickness of the nutrition soil layer accumulated on the bottom of the lake or the like. According to the present invention, there is provided a method for producing a water purifying substance in accordance with Claim 1. The water purifying substance used in accordance with this invention is made granular. However, the shape, grain size and unit surface area of the granular substance are by no means limitative and may be determined in accordance with the purpose and condition for which the substance is used. The water purifying substance has a particle size of 1 mm to 20 mm, preferably 2 mm to 5 mm, and may have a porosity of 10% to 40%, preferably 20% to 40%. Other and further objects of this invention will become obvious upon an understanding of the embodiments about to be described or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice. The method for producing the water purifying substance according to this invention will be described hereinafter. The soil used in this invention contains allophane expressed by the following chemical formula (1) may be enumerated. nSi0 2 .Al 2 0 3 .mH 2 0 (In the formula, n is a number within the range of 1.3 to 2, and m is a number within the range of 2.5 to 3 at the maximum larger than 0). The chemical compositions may comprehend clay containing nSiO 2 .Al 2 0 3 .mH 2 0 out of the ranges of n and m specified before. A mixture of the allophane given by the aforementioned chemical formula and polyaluminum chloride, and/or ferrous sulfate is produced. Volcanic ash soil (loam soil extracted in the Kanto district of Japan, particularly, Musashino or Tachikawa area) and clay may be suitable materials. Although the contents of the allophanes in the soil are not specifically limited, it may be desirably determined to 5% by weight or more, preferably 20% by weight or more. The mixing ratio of the soil and water may be determined in accordance with the kind of the soil and the water content. The mixture is originarily prepared by adding water of 30 to 50 parts by weight to bone dry soil. Next, the mixture of soil and water is sintered in the air. The sintering temperature is 200°C to 700°C, preferably, 400°C to 500°C. The porous sintered substances formed by sintering the mixture at a temperature out of this range are unsatisfactory in purifying properties and stability in water (susceptible to decomposition resulting in suspension in water). Although the sintering temperature can be substantially determined in accordance with the kind of the soil used as raw materials, volcanic ash soil may preferably be sintered at 200°C to 600°C, and a mixture containing other materials may preferably be sintered at 200°C to 700°C. The sintering time may be determined in accordance with the kind and amount of the raw materials to be sintered. The granular and porous sintered substances thus obtained can be used as a water purifying agent as it is. In case of need, the sintered substances may be used in the state contained in a suitable container or placed on a carrier. The water purifying substance according to this invention has an excellent ability to fix phosphoric acid and therefore is suitable for absorbing and removing the phosphoric acid in water or soil. Only by scattering the water purifying substances of this invention around a lake or marsh in which sludge fortified with nutritious waste materials is accumulated, the phosphoric acid can be effectively absorbed by the water purifying substances when it liquates out from the sludge, or soars in the air or water. Thus, the phosphoric acid remaining in the sludge disappears gradually from the soil or sludge. Also phosphoric acid contained in flowing water can be removed by the water purifying substances of the invention and prevented from being accumulated in the sludge. This fact means that the artificial removal of phosphoric acid contained in the sludge can be readily effected by using the native self-purification effect without using any expensive wastewater treatment system. Furthermore, the water purifying substance of the invention can be used as a filtration material. The purifying ability of a water purifying device can be remarkably improved by using the water purifying substances of the invention as the filtration material. The water purifying substances according to the present invention has the ability to absorb and fix arsenic, too. In addition, the water purifying substance of this invention can be used as a coagulating agent. By scattering the water purifying substances of the invention around a lake or other watering places in which sludge fortified with nutritious waste materials is accumulated, suspended matters can be coagulated and precipitated. As a result, the phosphoric acid in the sludge is prevented from liquating out, soaring and diffusing in the water. The water purifying substance of this invention which is produced in the form of sintered particles can be formed into a block. The block-formed sintered particles may be spread over the bottom of the river or other watering places so as to purify the water. The coagulating agent produced by sintering a mixture of allophane and polyaluminum chloride, which is expressed by the aforenoted chemical formula (1), is more excellent in coagulating ability. This effect results from the native coagulating function of polyaluminum chloride and is heightened by the synergistic effect of the sintered substances having the ability to fix phosphoric acid and the polyaluminum chloride essentially having the ability of coagulating the phosphoric acid. Accordingly, the quality of any kind of water can be improved. As stated above, the water purifying substance of this invention serves as an absorbent or coagulant for phosphoric acid or arsenic and may be used together with known absorbent such as activated charcoal and zeolite, or known coagulant such as iron chloride, aluminum sulfate and polyacrylamide as occasion calls. The water purifying substances and the method for producing substances according to this invention will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the embodiments practising the invention, but the following embodiments should not be understood as limitative. EMBODIMENT 1 [Production Of Water Substance Having High Ability To Fix Phosphoric Acid With Polyaluminum Chloride] A principal raw material was obtained by adding polyaluminum chloride of 4% by dry weight to 5 kg of volcanic ash soil containing 0.7 kg of water and allophane and mixing the mixture sufficiently. The raw material thus obtained was squeezed out through pores of 3.5 mm in diameter and sintered in an electric furnace at 500°C for 15 minutes to form porous sintered particles (2 to 4 mm in average diameter and 25% to 30% in porosity). Then, the sintered particles were scattered in water to study the adaptation to water. The study revealed that the sintered particles were not decomposed nor suspended in water at all. EMBODIMENT 2 [Production Of Water Purifying Substance Having High Ability To Fix Phosphoric Acid With Ferrous Sulfate] A principal raw material was obtained by adding ferrous sulfate of 1% by dry weight relative to 5 kg of volcanic ash soil containing 0.7 kg of water and allophane and mixing the mixture sufficiently. The raw material thus obtained was squeezed out through pores of 3.5 mm in diameter and sintered in an electric furnace it 500°C for 15 minutes to form porous sintered particles (2 to 4 mm in average diameter and 25% to 30% in porosity). Then, the sintered particles were scattered in water to study the adaptation to water. The study revealed that the sintered particles were not decomposed nor suspended in water at all. ― COMPARATIVE STUDY 1 ― [Evaluation Of Phosphoric Acid Fixing Ability of Water Purifying Substance] The comparative study was carried out by scattering 15 g or water purifying substance consisting of the porous sintered particles containing polyaluminum chloride, which is produced in Embodiment 1 noted above, in 1 liter of water prepared to have the phosphoric acid concentration of 50 ppm. Each time a prescribed time passed, the phosphoric acid fixing ability of the water purifying substances of this invention was evaluated. The water purifying substance used in this study is designated as an experimental sample EX-11. An comparative sample CS-9 was evaluated without use of the water purifying substance of this invention each time a prescribed time passed. The result of this experiment is shown in Table 1. As is evident from the experimental results shown in Table 1, the water purifying substance used as the experiment sample EX-11 containing polyaluminum chloride could bring about the effect to reduce the concentration of phosphoric acid in water to 0.02 ppm. Accordingly, it is found that the water purifying substances of this invention used in the aforenoted Embodiment 1 has excellent ability to fix phosphoric acid. ― COMPARATIVE STUDY 2 ― [Evaluation Of Phosphoric Acid Fixing Ability of Water Purifying Substance In Sludge] In this comparative study, a phosphoric acid solution was added to 200 ml to prepare a sludge sample having the phosphoric acid concentration of 51.10 ppm. Then. 15 g of water purifying substance polyaluminum chloride produced In the form of porous sintered particles in Embodiment 1 noted above was scattered in 1 liter of phosphoric acid solution mixed with sludge. Each time a prescribed time passed, the phosphoric acid fixing ability of the water purifying substance was evaluated. In this study, the water purifying substance scattered in the solution is designated as an experimental sample EX-12. An comparative sample CS-10 was prepared from solution having the phosphoric acid concentration of 51.40 ppm and evaluated in its phosphoric acid fixing ability each time a prescribed time passed. The results of this experiment is shown in Table 2 below. From the results shown in Table 2, it is evident that by using the water purifying substance, the phosphoric acid concentration in water could be remarkably reduced to 0.25 ppm. Therefore, the water purifying substance containing polyaluminum chloride, which is produced in Embodiment 1 noted above, shows excellent ability to fix phosphoric acid in sludge. ― COMPARATIVE STUDY 3 ― [Evaluation Of Phosphoric Acid Fixing Ability of Water Purifying Substance With Ferrous Sulfate] A phosphoric acid solution used in this comparative study was added to 200 ml of sludge so as to have the phosphoric acid concentration of 51.10 ppm. Then, 15 g of water purifying substance with ferrous sulfate as produced in Embodiment 1 in the form of porous sintered particles, was scattered in the phosphoric acid solution. Each time a prescribed time passed, the phosphoric acid fixing ability of the water purifying substances of this invention was evaluated. The water purifying substance used in this study is designated as an experimental sample EX-13. An comparative sample CS-11 was evaluated without use of the water purifying substance of this invention each time a prescribed time passed. The result of this experiment is shown in Table 3. From the results shown in Table 3, it is evident that by using the water purifying substance produced in Embodiment 2 noted above, the phosphoric acid concentration in water could be remarkably reduced to 0.15 ppm. Therefore, the water purifying substance containing ferrous sulfate which is produced in Embodiment 3 noted above shows excellent ability to fix phosphoric acid in sludge. Accordingly, it is found that the water purifying substance of this invention used in the aforenoted Embodiment 2 has more excellent ability to fix phosphoric acid in comparison with the ferrous sulfate-free water purifying substance containing polyaluminum chloride as produced in Embodiment 1. ― COMPARATIVE STUDY 4 ― [Evaluation Of Phosphoric Acid Fixing Ability of Water Purifying Substance With Ferrous Sulfate In Sludge] In this comparative experiment, a phosphoric acid solution was added to 200 ml to prepare sludge samples having the respective phosphoric acid concentration of 0.23 and 51.00 ppm. Then, 15 g of water purifying substance with ferrous sulfate produced in the form of porous sintered particles in Embodiment 3 noted above was scattered in 1 liter of phosphoric acid solution mixed with sludge. Each time a prescribed time passed, the phosphoric acid fixing ability of the water purifying substances was evaluated. In this study, the water purifying substances scattered in the solution ii designated as experimental samples EX-14 and EX-15. Comparative samples CS-12 and CS-13 were prepared from solutions having the phosphoric acid concentration of 0.28 and 51.40 ppm, respectively, and evaluated in their phosphoric acid fixing abilities each time a prescribed time passed. The results of this experiment is shown in Table 4 below. From the results shown in Table 4, it is evident that by using the water purifying substance, the phosphoric acid concentrations in water could be remarkably reduced to 0.03 and 0.11 ppm, respectively. Therefore, the water purifying substance containing ferrous sulfate which is produced in Embodiment 2 noted above shows excellent ability to fix phosphoric acid in sludge. As is apparent from the foregoing description, the present invention brings about the marked effects as follows: (A) A water purifying substance produced by the present invention can bring the ability to fix phosphoric acid into full play. Accordingly, the water purifying substance of this invention can integrate the artificial purification system with the native purification system, so that nutritious water fortified with phosphoric acid and so on can be improved without using any conventional waste water treatment apparatus being expensive and awkward to handle. (B) The water purifying substance according to this invention serves as an excellent coagulant. By scattering the water purifying substance around a lake or marsh in which nutritious sludge and the like are accumulated, suspension matters floating in the water can be effectively coagulated and precipitated. As a result, liquation or diffusion of phosphoric acid can be prevented. (C) The water purifying substance produced by the invention using polyaluminum chloride can further enhance the coagulating effect thereof. (D) The water purifying substance produced by the invention using ferrous sulfate can further enhance the phosphoric acid fixing effect thereof. (E) According to the method of the present invention, porous sintered solid particles can readily be produced by sintering soil containing allophanes and polyaluminum chloride and/or ferrous sulfate at 200°C to 700°C. The water purifying substance produced by the method of the present invention has large porosity, and therefore, is not decomposed nor suspended in water. Accordingly, only by scattering the water purifying substances of this invention around a lake, marsh or other watering places, phosphoric acid existing in sludge accumulated on the bottom can be securely captured in the water purifying substances for a long time.

Claims: A method for producing a water purifying substance, which comprises adding polyaluminum chloride and/or ferrous sulfate to a soil containing allophanes to obtain a mixture, and sintering said mixture at 200°C to 700°C to form porous sintered particles having an average particle size of 1mm to 20mm, wherein said allophane is expressed by: nSiO 2 .Al 2 0 3 .mH 2 O where, n is a number within the range 1.3 to 2, and m is a number within the range of 2.5 to 3 at the maximum larger than 0.

Inventors: JIANG YAOZONG, YANAGITA TOMOTAKE, JIANG, YAOZONG, YANAGITA, TOMOTAKE
Applicants: CREATERRA INC, CREATERRA INC.
Application year: 1994
Main classification: C02F1
IPC codes: B01J20, C04B38